In recent years, mobile wireless data communication services have become increasingly popular. In particular, data services, such as, text messaging, short message service (SMS), multimedia services and other forms of data services continue to grow in popularity. In some instances, mobile data services are even favored over the traditional mobile voice services.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example conventional mobile communications network 10. The network provides mobile voice and data communication services to various different mobile stations and corresponding mobile communication networking components. For example, an Apple® push notification interface unit (APNI) 20 provides data processing and forwarding services to an apple mobile station 20-1 (i.e., Iphone®). The mobile station 20-1 may also access an on device application via a web interface to an applet that communicates with an application server 20-1. Similarly, a Blackberry® interface unit (BBI) 30 provides data processing and forwarding services to a blackberry station 30-1 (i.e., Blackberry®).
Other conventional data services may include short messaging services (SMS) for transmitting and receiving data messages, multimedia messaging services (MMS) for transmitting and receiving multimedia files. Further conventional data services may include premium short message services (PSMS) as a type of payment scheme that permits operators to charge subscribers for mobile products and services. These above-noted types of services may be provided to a mobile station 40-1 by a short messaging service center (SMSC) 40. In addition, data web browsing may also be offered to users of a web browser terminal 50.
Conventional push-to-talk voice services may also be offered to a mobile station 60. Although, push-to-talk is in fact a voice service, the format of the voice data may be similar to a type of mobile data service. The communication network 10 may also provide access to telephony end users 70-1 over a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 70 that operates according to a time division multiplex (TDM) switching configuration.
The communication network 10 provides mobile voice and data services to all of the various different mobile stations and their respective data access schemes and protocols. The network 10 may represent one or more of the local loop telephony backbone network, the Internet and/or the network access providers of each of the respective mobile stations. These network access providers are experiencing increased demands for data services as opposed to voice services. Newer and more advanced methods of utilizing data services over the communication network 10 are continually being offered. These new data services are driving the increased usage of data services and a decrease in voice services. Furthermore, data services in general require less bandwidth and less real-time connectivity efforts, and, thus represent a more affordable service for the network providers.